Christopher Marlowe | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/marlowe
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018Sun, 18 Feb 2018 08:03:46 GMT2018-02-18T08:03:46Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Kingsley Amis was spied on – but he’s in the best literary companyhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/dec/01/kingsley-amis-mi5-spied-espionage-byron-wordsworth-orwell-iris-murdoch
MI5 kept tabs on Amis, who joins Byron, Wordsworth, Orwell and Iris Murdoch as having been suspected of espionage<p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/28/profumo-had-long-term-relationship-with-nazi-spy-before-60s-sex-scandal">Profumo had long-term relationship with Nazi spy before 60s sex scandal</a> </p><p>The National Archives revealed this week that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/28/profumo-had-long-term-relationship-with-nazi-spy-before-60s-sex-scandal" title="">MI5 kept a file on Kingsley Amis</a> after learning in the 1940s that he was a student communist. Amis was then called up and his commanding officer, responding reassuringly to an inquiry by MI5’s gloriously named Lt Col John Baskervyle-Glegg, perceptively foreshadowed his ensuing career by saying that he voiced outrageous views “to compensate for a nebulous personality by making extreme and controversial statements in the hope it will make an impression”. This put the subsequently reactionary author of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/15/lucky-jim-kingsley-amis-classic" title=""><em>Lucky Jim</em></a> in rather distinguished company, since British writers who have been spied on are often classier, in literary terms, than those who have&nbsp;been spies (including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/07/100-best-novels-39-thirty-nine-steps-john-buchan-robert-mccrum" title="">John Buchan</a>, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré) because the latter tend to exploit their knowledge of the looking-glass world of espionage by writing thrillers.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/dec/01/kingsley-amis-mi5-spied-espionage-byron-wordsworth-orwell-iris-murdoch">Continue reading...</a>Kingsley AmisBooksCultureEspionageMI5John MiltonLord ByronIris MurdochWilliam WordsworthChristopher MarloweFri, 01 Dec 2017 14:00:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/dec/01/kingsley-amis-mi5-spied-espionage-byron-wordsworth-orwell-iris-murdochPhotograph: PAPhotograph: PAJohn Dugdale2017-12-01T14:00:44ZCoriolanus/Dido, Queen of Carthage review – Shakespeare and Marlowe do battlehttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/23/coriolanus-dido-queen-of-carthage-review-rsc-stratford
<p><strong>Royal Shakespeare theatre/The Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon <br></strong>This well-matched pair of tragedies in the RSC’s Rome season give us strong images, unforgettable lines, probing psychology – and a lot of blood</p><p>★★★☆☆/★★★★☆</p><p>It is not often that Shakespeare and Marlowe go head to head: you have to go back 50 years to find an imaginative Stratford pairing of The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta. But, as part of its Rome season, the RSC brings us <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/may/05/best-shakespeare-productions-coriolanus">Coriolanus</a> (1608) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/apr/07/dido-queen-carthage-virgil">Dido, Queen of Carthage</a> (1586) on the same day. If Shakespeare’s is the greater play, it is the Marlowe production that for me generated greater excitement.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/22/politicians-people-coriolanus-rsc-shakespeare">Politicians v the people: what our leaders could learn from Coriolanus</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/23/coriolanus-dido-queen-of-carthage-review-rsc-stratford">Continue reading...</a>Royal Shakespeare CompanyTheatreCoriolanusStageCultureChristopher MarloweSat, 23 Sep 2017 10:26:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/23/coriolanus-dido-queen-of-carthage-review-rsc-stratfordPhotograph: Helen MaybanksPhotograph: Helen MaybanksMichael Billington2017-09-23T10:26:52ZWill review: rock'n'roll Shakespeare series is a badly drawn bardhttps://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/10/will-review-tnt-shakespeare
<p>The US show imagines the life of the playwright as an upstart in Elizabethan London, but its Luhrmann-esque histrionics feel out of place and out of touch</p><p>Writers’ lives have long been a topic ripe for film-makers. Just in the last several years, Truman Capote, David Foster Wallace, Allen Ginsberg and Emily Dickinson have all had the biopic treatment. Now a new TNT show, Will, is trying the same trick with the Bard, imagining his early years as an ambitious lad set adrift in London’s bacchanalian theatre scene.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jun/13/shakespeares-globe-theatre-20th-birthday">Ruff ride: the everlasting battles and beauty of Shakespeare's Globe</a> </p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/08/two-sides-to-every-story-whitney-tupac-assange-and-the-trouble-with-making-biopics">Two sides to every story: Whitney, Tupac, Assange and the trouble with making biopics</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/10/will-review-tnt-shakespeare">Continue reading...</a>US televisionWilliam ShakespeareTelevisionTelevision & radioShakespeare's GlobeStageCultureBiopicsLondonChristopher MarloweMon, 10 Jul 2017 14:00:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/10/will-review-tnt-shakespearePhotograph: Alex Bailey/TNTPhotograph: Alex Bailey/TNTJake Nevins2017-07-10T14:00:27ZSpy report that criticised Marlowe for 'gay Christ' claim is revealed onlinehttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/31/christopher-marlowe-spy-baines-note-gay-christ-british-library-online
<p>British Library releases ‘Baines note’ in which playwright Christopher Marlowe scandalously suggests Christian communion should be smoked in a pipe</p><p>A controversial document in which the playwright Christopher Marlowe reportedly declared that Christ was gay, that the only purpose of religion was to intimidate people, and that “all they that love not tobacco and boys were fools” is to go on show online for the first time.</p><p>The so-called “Baines note”, a star item in the British Library’s Renaissance manuscript collection, offers tantalising evidence about the private life of Marlowe, one of the most scandalous and magnetic figures of the Elizabeth period. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/31/christopher-marlowe-spy-baines-note-gay-christ-british-library-online">Continue reading...</a>TheatreChristopher MarloweBritish LibraryHeritageStageCultureChristianitySexualityLibrariesBooksUK newsPoetryEspionageHistoryHistorySocietyEducationReligionWorld newsThu, 30 Mar 2017 23:01:39 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/31/christopher-marlowe-spy-baines-note-gay-christ-british-library-onlinePhotograph: AlamyPhotograph: AlamyAndrew Dickson2017-03-30T23:01:39ZTamburlaine review – stylish take on Marlowe's tale of toxic masculinityhttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/21/tamburlaine-review-yellow-earth-marlowe
<p><strong>Arcola, London</strong> <br>A predominantly female cast return the story to its Asian origins in Yellow Earth’s adaptation of the Elizabethan epic</p><p>An outsize play about an outsize personality, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/sep/25/hero-val-mcdermid-christopher-marlowe">Christopher Marlowe</a>’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2005/oct/15/theatre.art">rangy drama</a> about the lowly shepherd who became a world-conquering warrior was a massive hit for the 23-year-old in 1587, when Elizabethan England was on the brink of war with Spain.</p><p>It’s no surprise that it’s rarely revived now. A gore-fest written in two parts and running to 10 acts, Tamburlaine has defeated better resourced companies, on far bigger stages, than the British east Asian company <a href="http://yellowearth.org/">Yellow Earth</a> – whose adaptation at the Arcola pares it back to a mere two and half hours, using a predominantly female cast and returning the story to its Asian origins.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/21/tamburlaine-review-yellow-earth-marlowe">Continue reading...</a>TheatreStageCultureChristopher MarloweTue, 21 Mar 2017 15:00:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/21/tamburlaine-review-yellow-earth-marlowePhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianPhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianLyn Gardner2017-03-21T15:00:09ZHow close were Marlowe and Shakespeare?https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/oct/28/brush-up-marlowe
<p>The editors of the Oxford Complete Shakespeare believe Christopher Marlowe collaborated on the three Henry VI plays … but are they right?</p><p>By crediting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers">Christopher Marlowe this week as the previously unacknowledged co-writer of Shakespeare’s <em>Henry VI</em> trilogy</a>, the New Oxford Shakespeare’s editors have added another portrayal of Marlowe – the handy helpmeet working with a less experienced writer, and apparently not seeking recognition for the results – to the wildly contrasting other versions of him (and of his relationship, if any, with Shakespeare) offered by novels, plays and screen fiction. Here are some of them:</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/oct/28/brush-up-marlowe">Continue reading...</a>BooksChristopher MarloweCultureWilliam ShakespeareTheatreFilmStageFri, 28 Oct 2016 12:00:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/oct/28/brush-up-marlowePhotograph: AlamyPhotograph: AlamyJohn Dugdale2016-10-28T12:00:10ZNo shame in Shakespeare sharing the wryhting credits | Lettershttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/24/no-shame-in-shakespeare-sharing-the-wryhting-credits
<p>Marlowe and Shakespeare were both playwrights (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers" title="">Marlowe finally credited among cast of Bard’s co-writers</a>, 24 October). When first coined by Ben Jonson in his <a href="http://hollowaypages.com/jonson1692epigrams.htm" title="">Epigrams</a>, the word had a distinct whiff of derision, but it was nevertheless rooted in the working life of the period. Wrights, from the Old English <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wright" title="">“wryhta”</a>, roughly equivalent to&nbsp;“worker”, were craftsmen, builders or&nbsp;repairers.</p><p>In the same way as shipwrights, wainwrights and wheelwrights, playwrights no doubt worked together to craft stage plays from the best material to hand. All three writers were of relatively humble origin, being respectively the sons of a shoemaker, a glover and a (master) bricklayer, artisans well-grounded in respectable labour. And it is after all, the quality of the plays they wrought that still speaks of their craftsmanship, no matter the hands that held the quill.<br><strong>Austen Lynch</strong><br><em>Garstang, Lancashire</em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/24/no-shame-in-shakespeare-sharing-the-wryhting-credits">Continue reading...</a>William ShakespeareCultureTheatreStageBen JonsonChristopher MarloweMon, 24 Oct 2016 16:37:55 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/24/no-shame-in-shakespeare-sharing-the-wryhting-creditsPhotograph: Steven Senne/APPhotograph: Steven Senne/APLetters2016-10-24T16:37:55ZChristopher Marlowe credited as one of Shakespeare's co-writershttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers
<p>Dramatists to appear jointly on title pages of Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three in the New Oxford Shakespeare after analysis by team of 23 academics</p><p>The long-held suggestion that Christopher Marlowe was William Shakespeare is now widely dismissed, along with other authorship theories. But Marlowe is enjoying the next best thing – taking centre stage alongside his great Elizabethan rival with a credit as co-writer of the three Henry VI plays.</p><p>The two dramatists will appear jointly on each of the three title pages of the plays within the New Oxford Shakespeare, a landmark project to be published by Oxford University Press this month.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/24/no-shame-in-shakespeare-sharing-the-wryhting-credits">No shame in Shakespeare sharing the wryhting credits | Letters</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writers">Continue reading...</a>Christopher MarloweWilliam ShakespeareCultureStageTheatreUK newsSun, 23 Oct 2016 21:00:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/oct/23/christopher-marlowe-credited-as-one-of-shakespeares-co-writersPhotograph: See captionPhotograph: See captionDalya Alberge2016-10-23T21:00:11ZWhy are there so many papal plots in fiction?https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/mark-lawson-popish-plots-robert-harris
<p>From Dan Brown to Graham Greene, the papacy has long proved fascinating to writers. Mark Lawson examines the mysteries around this powerful figure and the church he leads</p><p>The first duty of a Roman Catholic cardinal, when elected pope, is to choose the name by which he wants to be known. Among the 266 holders of the papacy to date, the current incumbent is the first to take Francis, a flash of re-baptismal originality in a line of succession in which the Johns reach 23, there have been a dozen men called Pius and 13 took the name Innocent.</p><p>This autumn, though, Pope Francis will co-exist with Pope Innocent XIV, the title eventually taken by the winner among the cardinals competing for the throne of St Peter in Robert Harris’s thriller, <em>Conclave</em>, and Pius XIII, the identity selected by Jude Law as the first American pontiff in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/sep/03/the-young-pope-review-jude-laws-sleek-pontiff-shines-in-sorrentinos-twin-peaks"><em>The Young Pope</em></a>, a TV drama that starts its UK run on Sky Atlantic next month.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/mark-lawson-popish-plots-robert-harris">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureReligionDan BrownGraham GreeneKingsley AmisSky AtlanticRobert HarrisChristopher MarloweFilmTheatreStageThe Young PopeTelevision & radioFri, 16 Sep 2016 11:00:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/mark-lawson-popish-plots-robert-harrisPhotograph: Sky/HBO/Wildside 2015Photograph: Sky/HBO/Wildside 2015Mark Lawson2016-09-16T11:00:10ZTimothy West on Richard II: 'You can't take your eyes off him'https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jul/04/timothy-west-ian-mckellen-richard-ii-shakespeare
<p>When he played Bolingbroke to Ian McKellen’s Richard in a 1960s Prospect production, West discovered a play divided between his character and the king – and learned that McKellen is a white-wine actor while he’s definitely red</p><p>The funny thing about Richard II is that it’s completely <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/nov/25/richard-ii-play-for-today">different from every other Shakespeare history play</a>. It’s richly poetic, almost baroque, not a single line of prose in the entire thing. There’s a huge amount of politics, plenty of manoeuvring and jockeying for position, but the form is so polished and stylised. It’s a beautiful play, and somehow also a little bit strange. It’s a kind of experiment.</p><p>When we staged it with <a href="http://www.mckellen.com/stage/r2/prospect.htm">the touring company Prospect from 1968</a>, I played Bolingbroke to Ian McKellen’s Richard. The play is divided between them, quite symmetrically: at the beginning <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/richard-ii/the-plot">Richard is in power, but Bolingbroke has all the movement</a>. He’s Richard’s cousin, the son of John of Gaunt, and clearly Richard sees him as a threat, so he banishes him from England. When Bolingbroke returns to claim his rights, Richard ends up resigning the crown. Bolingbroke is suddenly in charge. But by that stage the play is all Richard’s – you can’t take your eyes off him. Shakespeare must have felt something very strongly for him, I think: <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/richardii/richardii.5.5.html">his final scene</a>, when he’s in prison and hears music (“So it is in the music of men’s lives”), is such an extraordinary piece of writing. Perhaps it’s just that he’s the consummate actor – always aware of how others see him.</p><p>I decided my job as Bolingbroke was to be the godlike Richard's opposite: everything he was, I wasn't</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jul/04/timothy-west-ian-mckellen-richard-ii-shakespeare">Continue reading...</a>TheatreTimothy WestIan McKellenWilliam ShakespeareStageCultureChristopher MarloweMon, 04 Jul 2016 07:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jul/04/timothy-west-ian-mckellen-richard-ii-shakespearePhotograph: Michael Peto, University of DundeePhotograph: Michael Peto, University of DundeeInterview by Andrew Dickson2016-07-04T07:00:04ZDoctor Faustus review – where’s the soul?https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/01/doctor-faustus-kit-harington-observer-review
<strong>Duke of York’s, London </strong><br />Kit Harington gets his kit off and Jenna Russell sings Bat out of Hell… but no one profits from this deal with the devil<p>Everyone applauds <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/23/jamie-lloyd-the-maids-zawe-ashton-laura-carmichael-uzo-aduba-kit-harington-doctor-faustus" title="">Jamie Lloyd</a>’s determination to get new – by which he means – young audiences into the theatre. But does he really have to sell the soul of his material to do this?</p><p>In Lloyd’s febrile production of <a href="http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/duke-of-yorks/" title=""><strong>Doctor Faustus</strong></a><strong>. </strong>Kit (<em>Game of Thrones)</em> Harington, often in underpants, gets lots of time to show his chest, a minute or two to flash his bum and only one spell at the end to suggest undoubted acting talent. <a href="http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/colin-teevan" title="">Colin Teevan</a> replaces Marlowe’s unappetising middle section with some incoherent satire. The stage gibbers with spirits writhing around in grubby knickers. Jenna Russell is an acid, wheedling Mephistopheles, who provides an uplifting rendition of Bat out of Hell. Lucifer has a noisy time on the lavatory. And passes off his poo as a truffle. Is this intended as a metaphor?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/01/doctor-faustus-kit-harington-observer-review">Continue reading...</a>TheatreStageCultureKit HaringtonChristopher MarloweJamie LloydSun, 01 May 2016 07:00:48 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/01/doctor-faustus-kit-harington-observer-reviewPhotograph: Marc BrennerPhotograph: Marc BrennerSusannah Clapp2016-05-01T07:00:48ZDoctor Faustus review – off-with-your-kit Harington stars in Marlovian mish-mashhttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/26/doctor-faustus-review-kit-harington-duke-of-yorks-theatre-game-of-thrones
<p><strong>Duke of York’s, London</strong> <br>The Game of Thrones actor gives us a sense of the scholar’s flailing despair but Jamie Lloyd’s excessive version of the tragedy comes with a trite message</p><p>Christopher Marlowe’s play was once said to consist of “a beginning, a muddle and an end”. But <a href="http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/colin-teevan">Colin Teevan</a>’s adaptation, which totally rewrites the farcical central acts, only compounds the confusion and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/23/jamie-lloyd-the-maids-zawe-ashton-laura-carmichael-uzo-aduba-kit-harington-doctor-faustus">Jamie Lloyd</a>’s production seems based on the idea that nothing succeeds like excess. The presence of Game of Thrones’s Kit Harington, who is a perfectly good actor, in the title role will guarantee a young audience but what they will see is a Marlovian mish-mash.<br></p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/maria-aberg-rsc-stratford-doctor-faustus-sandy-grierson-oliver-ryan-christopher-marlowe">Who exactly is Faustus</a>? In Marlowe’s play he is a disgruntled Wittenberg academic who signs a pact with Mephistopheles in which he exchanges his immortal soul for 24 years of power and pleasure. In this version he is a tracksuited figure who, for all his Latin tags, inhabits a virtually bookless suburban semi. Given that, even before the arrival of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/feb/25/jenna-russell-my-life-in-five-shows-stephen-sondheim-liza-minnelli">Jenna Russell</a>’s crop-haired Mephistopheles, his room is thronged by naked figures, transvestite angels and a Lucifer in his underpants, it would seem that he is already halfway to damnation. But I got little sense, although he explores the universe on his laptop, that Faustus was either a studious scientist or a wavering believer.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/26/doctor-faustus-review-kit-harington-duke-of-yorks-theatre-game-of-thrones">Continue reading...</a>TheatreStageCultureKit HaringtonChristopher MarloweJamie LloydTue, 26 Apr 2016 09:02:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/26/doctor-faustus-review-kit-harington-duke-of-yorks-theatre-game-of-thronesPhotograph: Marc BrennerPhotograph: Marc BrennerMichael Billington2016-04-26T09:02:50ZKit Harington: ‘This Faustus is about a man trapped in his own head’https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/27/kit-harington-doctor-faustus-game-thrones-duke-yorks-theatre-london
<p>The Game of Thrones star on his return to the stage and his aversion to the ‘posh actor’ tag</p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/kit-harington">Christopher “Kit” Harington</a>, 29, was born in Acton, west London and from the age of 11 brought up in Worcestershire, his father a businessman and his mother a sometime playwright who named him after Christopher “Kit” Marlow. Although his uncle is the 14th Baronet Harington, Kit was state educated. While at drama school, he was cast in the National Theatre’s revival of <em>War Horse</em>, then in Laura Wade’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/dec/20/best-theatre-2012-posh"><em>Posh</em></a> at the Royal Court. From 2012, he starred as gloomy, illegitimate antihero Jon Snow in HBO’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/game-of-thrones"><em>Game of Thrones</em></a>, until Snow’s surprising (and disputed) death last year. Next month, he plays Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus at London’s <a href="http://www.dukeofyorkstheatre.co.uk/Doctor-Faustus.html">Duke of York’s theatre</a>.</p><p><strong>So you’re returning to the stage… </strong><br>It feels a bit grand to talk in those terms because I’d only just entered the stage at the beginning of my career when I left it. But I’ve wanted to come back for the last two years. I’d go and see friends in productions and have intense jealousy.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/23/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-alive-season-six">Game of Thrones: Jon Snow is back, so&nbsp;get set for a wild season six</a> </p><p>When I have kids I want them to go to state school</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/27/kit-harington-doctor-faustus-game-thrones-duke-yorks-theatre-london">Continue reading...</a>TheatreKit HaringtonGame of ThronesChristopher MarloweStageCultureSun, 27 Mar 2016 07:30:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/27/kit-harington-doctor-faustus-game-thrones-duke-yorks-theatre-londonPhotograph: Oliver RosserPhotograph: Oliver RosserNick Curtis2016-03-27T07:30:10ZYour own personal demon: Maria Aberg on her Doctor Faustus double acthttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/maria-aberg-rsc-stratford-doctor-faustus-sandy-grierson-oliver-ryan-christopher-marlowe
<p>In her RSC version of Marlowe’s satanic drama, Maria Aberg bins the jokes, channels Tom Waits and makes the leads strike matches to see who plays who<br></p><p><strong>In your version of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/marlowe">Christopher Marlowe</a>’s <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/doctor-faustus/about-the-play">Doctor Faustus</a>, the actors Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan are sharing the roles of <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/doctor-faustus/cast-and-creative">Faustus and Mephistophilis</a>. What led you to take that approach?<br></strong>If you conjure a demon, to some extent that demon is going to represent a side of yourself. I always felt the two characters were very much connected – that Mephistophilis didn’t really exist without Faustus, and the other way round. Mephistophilis is Faustus’s own particular demon rather than one that exists independently of his imagination.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/doctor-faustus-review-rsc-swan-stratford-oliver-ryan-sandy-grierson-maria-aberg">Doctor Faustus review – devilish ritual and punk cabaret at the RSC</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/maria-aberg-rsc-stratford-doctor-faustus-sandy-grierson-oliver-ryan-christopher-marlowe">Continue reading...</a>TheatreStageCultureChristopher MarloweRoyal Shakespeare CompanyFri, 12 Feb 2016 16:28:57 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/maria-aberg-rsc-stratford-doctor-faustus-sandy-grierson-oliver-ryan-christopher-marlowePhotograph: Helen MaybanksPhotograph: Helen MaybanksInterview by Chris Wiegand2016-02-12T16:28:57ZDoctor Faustus review – devilish ritual and punk cabaret at the RSChttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/doctor-faustus-review-rsc-swan-stratford-oliver-ryan-sandy-grierson-maria-aberg
<p><strong>The Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon</strong><br>Oliver Ryan and Sandy Grierson share the roles of the doctor and the demon in Maria Aberg’s darkly inventive, richly psychological production</p><p>It is fascinating to see Marlowe’s play, which deals with man’s desire to explore the outer limits of knowledge, just as gravitational waves have been detected. But Maria Aberg’s revival is less concerned with the play’s scientific implications than with the Dostoevskian idea of doubleness: Oliver Ryan and Sandy Grierson don’t so much alternate the roles of Faustus and Mephistophilis as let the burning of a match at the start of each performance determine who will play what.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/maria-aberg-rsc-stratford-doctor-faustus-sandy-grierson-oliver-ryan-christopher-marlowe">Your own personal demon: Maria Aberg on her Doctor Faustus double act</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/doctor-faustus-review-rsc-swan-stratford-oliver-ryan-sandy-grierson-maria-aberg">Continue reading...</a>TheatreChristopher MarloweCultureStageFri, 12 Feb 2016 15:37:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/12/doctor-faustus-review-rsc-swan-stratford-oliver-ryan-sandy-grierson-maria-abergPhotograph: Helen MaybanksPhotograph: Helen MaybanksMichael Billington2016-02-12T15:37:04ZFrom Oedipus to The History Boys: Michael Billington's 101 greatest playshttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/02/michael-billington-101-greatest-plays
<p>In his new book, the Guardian’s theatre critic has selected what he thinks are the 101 greatest plays ever written, in any western language – so do you agree?</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/26/choosing-101-greatest-plays-michael-billington">Choosing my 101 greatest plays – and why I left out King Lear</a> </p><p>“Why put my head on the chopping-block by writing a book hubristically entitled The 101 Greatest Plays?”, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/aug/26/choosing-101-greatest-plays-michael-billington">wondered</a> the Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington recently. But write it he has – and here is the full list for the first time.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/the-100-best-novels-written-in-english-the-full-list">The 100 best novels written in English: the full list</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/02/michael-billington-101-greatest-plays">Continue reading...</a>StageTheatreCultureAeschylusSophoclesAristophanesTony HarrisonChristopher MarloweWilliam ShakespeareBen JonsonMolièreJean RacineAphra BehnWilliam CongreveGeorge FarquharCarlo GoldoniFriedrich SchillerNikolai GogolHenrik IbsenLeo TolstoyFrank WedekindOscar WildeAnton ChekhovJM BarrieHarley Granville BarkerDH LawrenceGeorge Bernard ShawJames JoyceLuigi PirandelloNoel CowardFederico García LorcaBertolt BrechtEugene O'NeillTennessee WilliamsTerence RattiganArthur MillerSamuel BeckettJohn OsborneJohn ArdenArnold WeskerHarold PinterPeter ShafferAlan AyckbournEdward BondWole SoyinkaTom StoppardCaryl ChurchillBrian FrielConor McPhersonMichael FraynEdward AlbeeAlan BennettJez ButterworthMike BartlettWed, 02 Sep 2015 06:00:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/02/michael-billington-101-greatest-playsPhotograph: Johan Persson/ Tristram KentonPhotograph: Johan Persson/ Tristram KentonGuardian Staff2015-09-02T06:00:08ZDoctor Faustus review - Marlowe's classic loses its soul in a lackluster sloghttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/18/doctor-faustus-review-marlowe-chris-noth
<p><strong>Classic Stage Company in New York, New York</strong><br>This production of the mortality play falls flat with diabolical sing-alongs, awful fight choreography and star Chris Noth wishing he were somewhere else</p><p>In Doctor Faustus at Classic Stage Company, Chris Noth wriggles between salvation and damnation, which will be interesting to those who thought that battle was lost once he signed on to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/may/30/philip-french-sex-and-city-2-review">Sex and the City 2</a>. The conclusion of Marlowe’s tragedy sends his soul to eternal perdition, which is probably more painful than enduring Andrei Belgrader’s purposeless revival.<br></p><p> Faustus, an eminent scholar, has made himself master of every science and art, probably even clog dancing. Wearied with his accomplishments, he turns to demonology and he’s pretty good at that, too, soon conjuring up Mephistopheles (Zach Grenier), a genial guy in ruff and robe, who promises him absolute knowledge, absolute power and sex with dead hotties. The price: his immortal soul. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/18/doctor-faustus-review-marlowe-chris-noth">Continue reading...</a>StageChristopher MarloweCulturePoetryThu, 18 Jun 2015 16:21:45 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/18/doctor-faustus-review-marlowe-chris-nothPhotograph: Classic StagePhotograph: Classic StageAlexis Soloski2015-06-18T16:21:45ZPoem of the week: from Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/11/poem-of-the-week-doctor-faustus-christopher-marlowe
<p>The tumultuous energy of this 17th-century soliloquy remains alive with the terrors that follow a deal with the devil</p><p>FAUSTUS: Ah, Faustus,<br> Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,<br> And then thou must be damn’d perpetually!<br> Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,<br> That time may cease, and midnight never come;<br> Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make<br> Perpetual day; or let this hour be but<br> A year, a month, a week, a natural day,<br> That Faustus may repent and save his soul!<br> O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!<br> The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,<br> The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn’d.<br> O, I’ll leap up to my God! – Who pulls me down? –<br> See, see, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!<br> One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ! –<br> Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!<br> Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer! –<br> Where is it now? ’tis gone: and see, where God<br> Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!<br> Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,<br> And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!<br> No, no!<br> Then will I headlong run into the earth:<br> Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!<br> You stars that reign’d at my nativity,<br> Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,<br> Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist.<br> Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s],<br> That, when you vomit forth into the air,<br> My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,<br> So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!<br> [<em>The clock strikes the half-hour.</em>]<br> Ah, half the hour is past! ’twill all be past anon<br> O God,<br> If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,<br> Yet for Christ’s sake, whose blood hath ransom’d me,<br> Impose some end to my incessant pain;<br> Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,<br> A hundred thousand, and at last be sav’d!<br> O, no end is limited to damned souls!<br> Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?<br> Or why is this immortal that thou hast?<br> Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosis, were that true,<br> This soul should fly from me, and I be chang’d<br> Unto some brutish beast! all beasts are happy,<br> For, when they die,<br> Their souls are soon dissolv’d in elements;<br> But mine must live still to be plagu’d in hell.<br> Curs’d be the parents that engender’d me!<br> No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer<br> That hath depriv’d thee of the joys of heaven.<br> [<em>The clock strikes twelve.</em>]<br> O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,<br> Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!<br> [<em>Thunder and lightning.</em>]<br> O soul, be chang’d into little water-drops,<br> And fall into the ocean, ne’er be found!<br> [<em>Enter DEVILS.</em>]<br> My God, my god, look not so fierce on me!<br> Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!<br> Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!<br> I’ll burn my books! – Ah, Mephistopheles! <br> (<em>Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS</em>)</p><p>Last week’s poem, Sophie Hannah’s Selling His Soul, set me thinking about both the origins and the modern usage of the phrase. <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/david-torrance-pinpointing-labours-lost-soul.122457552">The Labour party’s soul was in the news</a>, after all, post-UK election. Shirley Williams, rising above party politics, claimed democracy had been put up for sale. But I didn’t find any accusations, from right, left or centre, of actual soul-selling, let alone satanic barter. Generally speaking, “selling your soul” in modern usage denotes submission to dull routine or lucrative scam. Deals with the devil are rarely implied, even metaphorically. You can choose wealth and power (and sell democracy) and it’s just about being “aspirational”, right?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/11/poem-of-the-week-doctor-faustus-christopher-marlowe">Continue reading...</a>PoetryChristopher MarloweCultureBooksMon, 11 May 2015 10:09:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/11/poem-of-the-week-doctor-faustus-christopher-marlowePhotograph: Tristram KentonPhotograph: Tristram KentonCarol Rumens2015-05-11T10:09:33ZThe Jew of Malta review – prescient, reverberating, immediatehttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/05/jew-of-malta-review-rsc-stratford
<strong>Swan, Stratford</strong><br />Justin Audibert’s striking new production is a reminder that at his best, Marlowe can give Shakespeare a really good run for his money<p>Every time I see a really good production of a Marlowe play, I think audiences have been the victim of a conspiracy. Everyone knows about Marlowe, but why is so tremendous a dramatist so seldom staged? At his best – fleet-footed, incisive, with occasional jewels casually thrown in – his work can be more exciting, a squillion times more immediately grasped, than Shakespeare is in a duff staging.</p><p>Justin Audibert proves the point in his striking RSC directorial debut. Setting <a href="http://www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/the-jew-of-malta/"><em>The Jew of Malta</em></a> in period (the action takes place in 1565), speeding the action with visual and sonic clarity, he makes the play look prescient, reverberating, immediate in its cultural clashes. Christian Malta is under siege from the Ottoman Turks; the Christians bullyingly turning to Jewish merchants for financial help. Audibert conjures up the factions brilliantly with the help of Jonathan Girling’s music and Lily Arnold’s design. Here is klezmer versus plainchant. The Turks whisk around like brightly coloured pepper pots; the nuns and friars are sanctimonious and sometimes sinister in black; the Jewish merchants are fusty in Gunpowder Plot clothes.</p><p>It is Marlowe’s brilliance to combine comic-strip clarity with verbal richness</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/05/jew-of-malta-review-rsc-stratford">Continue reading...</a>TheatreStageCultureChristopher MarloweRoyal Shakespeare CompanySun, 05 Apr 2015 07:00:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/apr/05/jew-of-malta-review-rsc-stratfordPhotograph: Tristram KentonLanre Malaolu (Ithamore) and Jasper Britton (Barabas) in The Jew of Malta: ‘magnificent’. Photograph: Tristram KentonPhotograph: Tristram KentonLanre Malaolu (Ithamore) and Jasper Britton (Barabas) in The Jew of Malta: ‘magnificent’. Photograph: Tristram KentonSusannah Clapp2015-04-05T07:00:08ZThe Jew of Malta review – needs to crank up malevolent humourhttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/27/the-jew-of-malta-review
<strong>Swan, Stratford</strong><br />Jasper Britton gives a robust performance as Marlowe’s murderous merchant, but Justin Audibert’s production will improve when it fully embraces the play’s savagery<p>How does one define Christopher Marlowe’s 1589 play? TS Eliot was surely right when he called it a farce filled with “savage comic humour”. But, although Justin Audibert’s production is refreshingly in period and striking to look at, it has yet to find the right Marlovian tone of mordant irony.</p><p>Audibert is clearly keen to motivate the descent of the hero, Barabas, into murderous villainy: in the early scenes, he is not just robbed of his wealth by the sadistic Maltese governor, but kicked and spat upon by the state’s bully boys. The only problem is that this is not The Merchant of Venice, in which the tragic hero is driven to an act of calculated revenge by constant persecution: Marlowe’s Barabas is fired more by a contempt for Christian hypocrisy and a lip-smacking relish for poisoning nuns or strangling friars.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2015/mar/26/costumes-rsc-the-jew-of-malta-in-pictures">From sketch to stitch: costumes for The Jew of Malta – in pictures</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/27/the-jew-of-malta-review">Continue reading...</a>TheatreRoyal Shakespeare CompanyChristopher MarloweStageCultureFri, 27 Mar 2015 14:24:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/27/the-jew-of-malta-reviewPhotograph: /Tristram Kenton for the GuardianLip-smacking relish for poisoning nuns … Jasper Britton as Barabas in The Jew of Malta. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianPhotograph: /Tristram Kenton for the GuardianLip-smacking relish for poisoning nuns … Jasper Britton as Barabas in The Jew of Malta. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianMichael Billington2015-03-27T14:24:53Z